2022 UK Bid and Proposal Salary Survey

The 2022 UK Bid & Proposal Salary Survey ("the survey") is the fifth salary survey conducted by Bid Solutions, and the profession has changed significantly in the 14 years since our first.

The 2022 survey had four aims:

  1. Publish the definitive salary report for the UK profession.
  2. Enable employees to confidently benchmark their salaries and benefits.
  3. Provide employers with accurate information when hiring and promoting.
  4. Highlight salary inequalities.

More than 1,400 professionals across the UK participated in the survey. We are confident that employers, employees and self-employed consultants will find the results extremely valuable for salary benchmarking, staff retention, peer review and career planning.


Download Full Report (pdf)

Key Findings

  • icon The average salary in our profession across all permanent full time roles is £59,163. This represents a 14% increase since 2018 (£51,816). The median salary across all roles is £55,000 (up from £48,000 in 2018).
  • icon The average salary for women is £54,085, a 15% increase since 2018 (£47,211).
  • icon The average salary for men is £66,608, a 16% increase since 2018 (£57,321).
  • icon Across all respondents, men on average earn 23% more than women. In 2018, the difference was 21.5%.
  • icon Heads of Proposal Management continue to be the best paid permanent staff within our profession, earning £77,145. Heads of Bid Management are a close second, earning £76,895. Bid/Proposal Coordinators remain the lowest paid, earning £33,468. Bid Managers earn £58,007 (7% increase) whilst Proposal Managers earn £53,795 (15% increase). Bid/Proposal Writers earn £44,732 (16% increase).
  • icon Only 49% of respondents said their organisations published gender pay gap statistics to all staff.
  • icon Men who attain APMP Practitioner are paid 26% more than women who hold the same qualification (it’s 21% more for APMP Foundation).
  • icon Proposal Managers are on average the best paid contractors, earning £697 per day (26% increase since 2018).
    Bid Managers earn £614 per day (6% increase). Average day rates for Bid Writers are up 13% to £540.
  • icon There is a wide range in respondents’ total annual contract earnings – from £15,000 to £285,000. The median total contract earnings is £81,250, with the average being £85,165 (8% increase on 2018).
  • icon Only 25% of contractors felt that IR35 Rules had negatively impacted their business.
  • icon Professionals located in Greater London attract the highest average basic salaries at £66,031. North East England once again recorded the lowest salaries at £44,778. Those who work full time and are home-based earn £58,330.
  • icon Over 74% of respondents have a bachelor’s degree or higher (up from 72% in 2018), with 94% having A-Levels or higher and 1% currently on an Apprenticeship.
  • icon 52% of respondents (up from 51% in 2018) have achieved APMP Foundation Level or higher.
  • icon 86% of the profession regularly work more than their contracted hours, with 25% of these working at least one hour above their contracted hours each day. 7% work an extra hour or more each day and regularly work weekends.
  • icon 53% of those working extra hours are not compensated with only 5.5% receiving extra pay for the extra hours. 33% receive time off in lieu.
  • icon 57% of respondents have no personal development plan. This increases to 66% for self-employed contractors.
  • icon 69% of respondents haven’t attended any training courses during the past 12 months. This rose to 78% for selfemployed contractors. Only 17% attended some form of external training during the past 12 months.
  • icon Unemployment within the survey sample is at an all-time low at 0.75% (compared with 2.6% in 2018).
    Permanent employees – 88.62% – dominate the workforce (81% in 2018). Self-employed and temporary staff comprise only 10.63% of all respondents (13% in 2018).
  • icon 68% of respondents are either ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ with their current role (up from 61% in 2018).
  • icon 39% of respondents are either ‘Not Satisfied’ or felt their current basic/day-rate could be better.
  • icon 69% of those surveyed chose work-life balance as most important to them. Only 7% state financial reward as their main driver.
  • icon 420 different job title variations were recorded in the survey (up from 334 in 2018). However, only 15 job titles accounted for 54% of respondents.
  • icon The average age of all professionals surveyed is 42. The average man in our profession is 44 (41 in 2018), and the average woman is 41 (37 in 2018). There is insufficient data to accurately report on gender-variants; only five respondents identified as either nonbinary or preferred not to say.
  • icon 40% of respondents feel ‘Extremely Positive’ about their career prospects in the next 12 months. Only 1% are ‘Extremely Negative’.
  • icon Balancing all relevant individual, company, and market factors, 29% of respondents feel ‘Extremely Positive’ about securing a pay rise in 2022. Only 0.5% feel ‘Extremely Negative’ and expect a pay cut. 35% expect their salaries to remain unchanged.